Inspecting Hot Attics

This question goes out to all the inspectors in areas where 95°+ in the shade is normal. The time it takes to do an attic or wind mitigation will bake your brain when a 95° day creates a 140°+ attic temperature. I am curious are you doing attic inspections early in the morning or disclaiming them due to excessive heat? :hot_face:

Heat Chart

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I inspect attics from the attic hatch. This way there is no need to enter the attic space. Disclaim entering due to heat.

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I’m in central Florida. I schedule all my attic work before 11am and I prefer to be up there by 8am if possible. It’s usually cool even at that time. Add a few hours and it’s hellish.

I had to finish up a duct repair at noon a few weeks back and it was a definitely approaching my limit.

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Sometimes I “feel” it’s a mind over matter kind of thing.
The heat has never bothered me that much.
Just concentrate steady breathing thru the nose only & watch where I’m going very carefully.
Doing pretty good - after all I’m experienced this was my 3rd inspection :grin:

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Like Marc, I think sometimes folks overthink it.

If it feels too hot, don’t go in, but around here, it’s very hot in most attics almost always. Only a handful of attics I have baled on in 25 years of Central Florida temps.

Tile roofs are typically cooler, shaded houses are cooler, and I would wager that the attic you disclaim as “too hot” will be the one that bites you in a$$ down the road…

Stay hydrated, change your shirt when you come out, and don’t dawdle up there.

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Are you making up those “high” numbers of inspections to get more clients, Marc? :flushed: :thinking: :face_with_spiral_eyes: :rofl:

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And that’s the key. While I’ve only been inspecting this year, I’ve been doing repairs in Florida Attics for going on 2 years now.

I arrange my schedule to get into attics as early as possible so I’m not a sweat hog. I did a Wind Mit today at 7:30 and it was almost chilly :).

Attic ventilation varies wildly too. Some of the newest homes don’t get nearly as hot as some of the older ones.

Get in, get out and if it’s later in the day, do it fast, but with some prudent scheduling it’s not an issue at all.

For what it’s worth, I added these fans to my roof and it went from a blast furnace to merely hot during the mid-day. It made a HUGE difference. The ridge vent isn’t sufficient in my house.

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I’ve been in florida 4 years, and I have gone in every attic I can, no matter the time or temp. I am consistently in attics at 11am and 3pm, because I usually save the attic for last. (Because I come out drenched)
Sometimes in the hottest months, after about 5-8 minutes I know it’s time to get out because it gets harder to breathe.
But I won’t disclaim an attic unless it is physically impossible to get into.

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Solar fans? I’ve wondered how well those work

I came across my first pair just last week. They were spinning really fast but I am not sure how much air was actually moving. On this home, they seemed to make perfect sense as a supplement to the small ridge vent on this hip roof.

The electrical wiring/j-box was obsolete.

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Yeah, from “The Solar guys”. I could have done the install, but they had the fans and warranty them for 10 years.

In my particular case, the ridge vent is code minimum width and the attic has some left over construction sheathing and such, so it’s not very open. It used to be if I opened the pull down stairs you’d get a blast in the face. Now? Nothing. In fact you can go up there any time of day and while it’s hot, it’s not anywhere near the level it was.

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On this venting topic, many of the newer homes in The Villages have 4 or more passive caps that look like Horsecrab shells. Wide open.

None of those homes get super heated at all. If I’m going into a 2015 or newer attic, I don’t really worry about it much. I still try to do it early, but if I get pushed for time, I’ll do one of those later without worrying about heat death in minutes.

Given the proximity of each different venting system in that install, some of the air will flow backwards from the ridge vent to the powered (active) vent, short-circuiting a lot of the convection flow.

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On those 90*+ days I always try to inspect the attic as early as possible before it heats up too much.

I too have exited out of attics drenched more than a few times, but I then head outside to inspect the exterior and try to dry off before I head back in.

One thing I don’t like doing, that many times can’t be avoided, is to go from an air conditioned space that’s cooled to around 72* into the attic where it’s over 100*, then back into the AC, the older I get the more it seems to have a negative effect on me as far as getting summer colds.

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Aside from attic work early as described above. I use an Ice vest, hard hat with a built in fan and clip on portable desk fan to my ice vest. I also use floor blowers one in the garage blowing into the attic and 1 or 2 in the attic if needed. I can spend hours in an attic if I need to. When it gets below 60 or so I take the ice panels out of the vest. :sunglasses:

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I used to wear one riding our motorcycle on really hot days…they work great! :+1:

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Like several of the others, I try to knock out the attic inspection early in the morning. I never use excessive heat as a reason for not inspecting an attic. I don’t think our clients would buy that excuse. I do try to limit my time up there though. When there’s an air handler or water heater in the attic, I often take a break and cool down before going back up there to check those appliances.

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On my initial walk of the property, I go inside to get the feel of the layout and where systems may fall into place. If there is an attic access and in the hot season, I will partially open it even though it’s going to be inspected later. Cooler air from lower levels should help a little, but not always.

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It will still exhaust the backflow, eh?

.

https://roofingmagazine.com/fact-or-fiction-mixing-exhaust-vent-types-is-problematic/

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